An Idiot-Proof Way To Make Email Groups: Fiesta.cc

Published 4:00 am, Monday, March 21, 2011

Email has been around for decades, yet there still isn't a simple system for sending messages to the same group of people repeatedly.

Obviously, there's the "CC" option in email, but you still have to type in multiple addresses. You could set up a group in your preferred email client, but that means wadding into the murky "settings" sections.

Mike Dirolf, the 24-year-old founder of Fiesta.cc, may have come up with a solution with this small problem.

Fiesta.cc allows people to create group email lists right from the carbon copy field without ever having to visit another web page.

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It's so easy it's stupid. You can set up a group straight from your email with ease. Put everyone you want on your group list in the "To:" line, and make the subject your group name, as in "family@fiesta.cc." From there on in, when you or someone in your family wants to email everyone, just send it to "family@fiesta.cc." Click here to see how it works »

Just last Thursday, Dirolf made Fiesta.cc a public site. Already Dirolf has 2,000 users, including a group of 300 pastors who are happily using it he says.

Group products, such as GroupMe and Fast Society, were all the rage at SXSW this year, and Dirolf could easily be a dark horse in race.

Dirolf is building Fiest.cc at DogPatch Labs, a New York startup space. He has no funding, and is working strictly on his savings account.

The idea for Fiesta.cc came from Dirolf's first, failed attempt, which was also named Fiesta.

"That idea was more like Evite, but for everyday meetings," Dirolf tells us. "But I realized if people are planning one-time meetings, they're not going to bother sending more than one group email. When I would plan something with friends, like a trip to the movies, I wasn't using my own product. And if the founder doesn't want to use it, no one else will either."

Suffice to say, Dirolf is using Fiesta.cc these days. And we think there's a good chance he won't be the only one.

Fiestacc's homepage shows how easy its process is

But you don't even need to use the website. Enter everyone you want to include in your group email in the 'To" field. Then select a group name @fiesta.cc in the "Cc" field.

Fiesta.cc ties group names to email address, so any user can select any group name, even one that is already being used by another group (think of naming people in a phone book versus having to pick a unique Twitter username).